Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Molasses Candy
Ingredients
Directions
Make the candy
Combine molasses, sugar, butter, and glycerine in a kettle.
Boil the mixture hard for 20 to 30 minutes.
Test by dropping a few drops into cold water; it should retain its shape when nearly done.
Finish and shape
Prepare well-buttered pans or platters.
Just before pouring the candy, stir in cream of tartar or baking soda.
If desired, add flavoring as it begins to cool.
Pull the candy until it reaches the desired whiteness and draw into sticks.
Cut the sticks with shears.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,225 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Molasses + creamtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,408 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Molasses
- Provides the main sweet flavor and the dark, chewy body of the candy.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the cooked mixture set into a firm candy.
- Butter
- Adds fat that softens the texture and keeps the candy from sticking too much.
- Glycerine
- Helps keep the candy soft and slows sugar crystallization.
- Cream of tartar or baking soda
- Reacts with the molasses, lightening the color and softening the texture of the candy.
The step that matters
Testing the boiled mixture for doneness. Sugar concentration decides whether the candy sets firm or stays soft and sticky. Boiling too briefly leaves too much water, while overcooking makes it brittle, so the cold-water test helps judge when it is nearly done.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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